Monroe County is located along the Ohio River in the Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau.The Little Muskingum River arises in Monroe County, flowing southwesterly through the hills, paralleling the Ohio River and eventually joining it in Washington County.

Places to visit

• Over 25,000 acres of the 178,000 acre Wayne National Forest are located in Monroe County

• Lamping Homestead Recreation Area has a pond with easy access to about 50% of the perimeter, and it is kayak accessible. $10/night but camping gear needs to be hauled to official sites and distances to those sites will vary. At the time of this writing, google maps misses the RT 307 turn off.

• Ring Mill Campground provides access to a creek. The climb down is medium-hard due to the steep bank. The location is best approached from Rt 68 North. Low Gap Jericho Rd. is often a washout just east of Harmon Ridge on Low Gap requiring 4WD to get through. $10/night to camp but you can park on site.

• Knowlton covered bridge provides easy access to the Little Muskingum River.

• Monroe Lake is a 39 acre artificial lake within the 1325 acre Monroe Lake Wildlife Area just south of the town of Malaga. The boat launch on the north west side provides easy access to some of the bank, and it is kayak accessible. Take SR 145 to 1001/Main Cross St. The southeast area of the lake provides down to the bank on the dam and around to the north east leg. It can be worth it to walk south down to the dam outlet at the creek. Expect moderate climbs. Parking is located off of SR 800

• Monroe County Parks guide

• Field Trip Guide from 2016 OOS conference

County Observation Activity

This graph shows the total number of odonata observations for the county in blue, with the average for all Ohio counties in orange. The season is divided into 10 or 11 day segments by Month – basically early-month, mid-month, and late-month.